D.C., tech tackle political ads … separately

D.C., TECH TACKLE POLITICAL ADS … SEPARATELY — As the Federal Election Commission concluded its second day of hearings on political ad disclaimers online, Twitter and Facebook — two of the companies that have faced the heaviest scrutiny on the matter — unveiled new measures aimed at increasing transparency around advertisements on their platforms.

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— Facebook’s moves center on frauds for Election Day: "We're very focused on midterms, on taking the lessons of what we didn't predict in 2016 and applying them," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told reporters during a briefing Thursday announcing the new features, which are aimed at making advertising and other content on the site more transparent before the November elections. "By far the most important action we're taking is going after fake accounts," Sandberg added. Under the new measures, users will now be able to see when pages were created and whether their names have been changed since.

— The session came the same day that Twitter rolled out its long-awaited political-ad transparency features, and the FEC considered whether it needs to regulate digital political ads. Both companies told MT the timing was a coincidence. Earlier this week, an aide to Democratic FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub told MT that they received “no response” after inviting leaders from Facebook, Google and Twitter to attend the hearing. The newly unveiled measures were met with mixed reviews from some of those who testified at the FEC’s hearings.

— “It’s a positive step but we think that an industry-managed database lacks accountability,” Christine Bannan, an administrative law and policy fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told MT of the social media companies’ new measures. Joseph Jerome, policy counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, told MT the measures “may go a good way to addressing the FEC's particular concern around disclosures of who paid for the ad.” But, Jerome said, “the bigger picture is getting more disclosure of ad targeting information.” Both Bannan and Jerome testified on the first day of hearings at the FEC.

GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO MORNING TECH, where your host is heartbroken over the recent shooting at the Capital Gazette building in Annapolis. Got any tech or telecom tips? Drop me a line at clima@politico.com or @viaCristiano. Don’t forget to follow us @MorningTech. And catch the rest of the team’s contact info after Quick Downloads.

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FOXCONN AND THE GROUNDBREAKING— President Donald Trump helped turn the dirt on a $10 billion electronics manufacturing facility in Wisconsin that his administration says serves as a sign of more foreign investment coming to the United States. “With advanced manufacturing techniques including robotics, the United States is now competitive with factories in low-wage countries and is an attractive place for investment,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross wrote in an op-ed for the Racine, Wis., Journal Times. Taiwanese electronics maker Foxconn announced the plant at the White House last July. At capacity, it could employ some 13,000 people producing liquid crystal display monitors for computers, televisions and vehicles.

— Thursday’s ceremonial visit to the site in southeastern Wisconsin— the district of House Speaker Paul Ryan — comes as the U.S. is locked in a brewing trade war with China. Trump recently imposed tariffs on some electronics imported from the country, a move intended to punish Beijing for intellectual property theft and other protectionist trade tactics. Trump used a speech in Wisconsin to again take swipes at China, the European Union and South Korea over trade, and vowed that his administration’s tariffs and renegotiated trade agreements would bring a better deal for the U.S.

GROUPS WANT FCC TO PAUSE SINCLAIR-TRIBUNE REVIEW — Public Knowledge and Common Cause formally asked the FCC on Thursday to hold off on its review of the Sinclair Broadcast-Tribune Media merger until the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decides on a pivotal media ownership rule change. The organizations, which oppose the $3.9 billion deal, say the commission is danger of approving an expansion that could become unlawful if the court rejects the agency’s decision to reinstate the so-called UHF discount. The discount allows companies to only count half the reach of some stations when calculating compliance with the 39 percent national audience limit. The Sinclair-Tribune merger relies on the discount to come under the limit.

— If the FCC approves the deal, and the court eliminates the UHF discount, Sinclair would be nearly 20 percent over the limit, Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said in a statement. “Forcing Sinclair to come into compliance with the law after it closes its deal with Tribune would mean either forcing a massive sell-off of stations — something very complicated to manage and difficult to enforce — or letting a new, merged Sinclair have unprecedented market power over the public airwaves,” Feld said in a statement. “Delaying a decision on Sinclair until the D.C. Circuit decides the UHF discount is basic common sense, and essential to protecting the public interest.”

—Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said during an earnings call in May that he expects the FCC to win the case, and also noted the agency has a rulemaking pending that could raise the 39 percent cap. But he also said “the other alternative is obviously that the deal would just expire.” A Sinclair representative declined comment Thursday.

LAWMAKERS SEEK UPDATE ON COMCAST FIGHT — Reps. Tony Cardenas and Raul Ruiz want to know when the FCC plans to decide on a long-pending petition from Liberman Broadcasting, which first accused Comcast of discriminating against its Spanish-language TV network in 2016. Liberman claimed Comcast refused to distribute Estrella TV on an equal basis with its own Telemundo and NBC Universo, giving those networks an advantage. The FCC’s Media Bureau dismissed the complaint that year, saying the broadcaster lacked standing to bring a program carriage complaint. Liberman petitioned the commission to reconsider, and that request has been pending for more than 18 months, the lawmakers noted in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “The companies involved in this matter deserve certainty,” the California Democrats wrote, seeking a response on when the commission will act on the petition by July 12.

— Separately, Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly took aim at long-pending petitions during a speech on FCC process reform at a Free State Foundation event Thursday. O’Rielly, who called for set timeframes for all proceedings, noted that, “A reconsideration petition can sit dormant for upwards of a decade without anyone blinking an eye.”

VERIZON SAYS NO WAY ON SAN JOSE MODEL— Verizon bristled at the notion that other cities should try to ape its deal with San Jose, Calif., to contribute to a digital inclusion fund in exchange for streamlined access to install small cells. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel highlighted San Jose’s agreements with Verizon, AT&T and Mobilitie on Wednesday, but Verizon’s Will Johnson wrote in a blog post Thursday that suggestions the agreements be replicated around the country are “off base and would threaten both the speed and the ultimate reach of 5G deployment.”

—The path to reaching an agreement with San Jose was “not quick or easy,” Johnson said, arguing that changes to facilitate small-cell deployment in cities are still essential. The FCC is expected to tackle the issue as part of its focus on barriers to wireless infrastructure. Johnson said what worked with San Jose would not work for all cities. “It would be a mistake to take such an arrangement — negotiated by a locality with significant leverage and particular unrelated needs and challenges — and treat it as a model nationwide,” he wrote.

DELBENE UNVEILS PRIVACY MEASURE — Rep. Suzan DelBene has unveiled a new measure aimed at boosting oversight of companies’ consumer privacy policies. In an op-ed published in the Financial Times on Thursday, DelBene, co-chair of the Digital Trade Caucus, outlined how increasing transparency measures would enhance consumer protection. “We’re at a point where consumers desperately need a clear understanding of what happens to their data, and the chance to have greater control,” she wrote. “Rather than having to comb through confusing policies and figure out how to opt out of highly invasive settings, customers should be able to expect privacy as the default.” The proposal would require that companies allow users to “opt in” before their sensitive personal information is used. It would also strengthen the FTC’s ability to bring companies into compliance with the transparency measures.

STUDY: REPUBLICANS VIEW TECH AS BIASED, BUT ARE WARY OF REGULATION — A majority of Republicans believe tech companies intentionally censor political viewpoints and are more likely to support liberals over conservatives, according to a new study out of the Pew Research Center. But despite those views, Democrats are still more likely than Republicans to support increased regulation of Silicon Valley, 57 percent to 44 percent. According to Aaron Smith, the researcher behind the study, the findings indicate there’s “a group of people who think that companies are engaging in censorship who don’t think they should be regulated.” “It may just be that we’re encountering the general resistance to government oversight that you get from conservatives,” Smith told MT. The findings, Smith said, could also indicate that some Republicans feel tech companies may be able to self-regulate issues of bias and censorship, and that increased oversight isn’t necessary. Overall, 51 percent of those surveyed believe there should be additional oversight of tech companies.

TRANSITIONS

— Google has tapped Karan Bhatia, a former George W. Bush administration official and current policy chief for GE, to head its global policy team out of Washington.

SILICON VALLEY MUST-READS

— Tech-less in Seattle — Despite widespread homelessness, Amazon’s hometown isn’t using its technology and wealth to address the problem, The Atlantic reports.

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About The Author : Cristiano Lima

Cristiano M. Lima is a technology reporter covering politics and policy on Capitol Hill. He is the former author of the Morning Tech newsletter. Prior, he worked as a breaking news reporter for POLITICO, covering the White House, Congress, the media industry and public policy. Cristiano first joined POLITICO as a senior web producer in 2016, managing social media accounts, producing content for the web, covering breaking news, contributing to the Morning Media and California Playbook newsletters and serving stints as a web editor.

A Brazilian-American journalist, Cristiano previously worked as a TV producer and reporter for Al Jazeera and Pennsylvania's WFMZ, a radio host for local NPR-affiliate WDIY and an intern for various other outlets. He's a two-time graduate of Lehigh University, earning both a Master's in 2016 as a Community Fellow and a Bachelor's in 2013 in politics and policy.